Why isn't my portfolio getting interviews?
Usually one of four things: the first case study doesn't show a result, the work reads as class projects, the portfolio is aimed at no one in particular, or it's simply not reaching hiring managers. Fix the first case study first: problem, what you did, what changed, in under two minutes of reading.
Hiring managers spend about a minute on a portfolio before deciding whether to keep reading. The first case study carries the whole decision. Lead with your strongest, most relevant project, and put the outcome in the first paragraph, even if the outcome is a decision the team made because of your work.
"My portfolio isn't landing interviews and I don't know why" is the single most common thing designers say when they arrive on Hop. Almost every time, a senior designer can see the reason in the first five minutes of a review. That is what a portfolio review session is for.
From Hop mentors who've been there
“Laid off and got a job less than 4 months! I can share my journey if you need a help from layoff!”
Chuck Shin · Senior Product Designer at Microsoft AI · on their Hop profile
“When the 2020 pandemic killed my plan to move into front-end dev, I was working retail with some self-taught UI skills and no design degree. I bet on a UX certificate and spent almost two years getting rejected before landing my first role in 2023. What I took from it: your "unrelated" background isn't the liability you think it is. The years I spent reading people across a sales counter and walking them through setting up their mobile devices turned out to be user research and usability tests that I didn't even know I was doing. I can help you find and name those transferable threads instead of hiding them.”
Stephen Carroll-Keene · Product Designer at EverDriven · on their Hop profile
“My career has spanned a bunch of situations including being laid off, passed over for promotion, had imposter syndrome, been the first or only designer, survived multiple re-orgs at big and small companies. I will pull from my real experience rather than speaking in generalizations.”
Mukul Agarwal · Principal product designer at Roblox · on their Hop profile
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